Entertainment
The extraordinary tale of a boy with learning difficulties who became a footy icon and friend to the stars-Hugh Montgomery-Entertainment – Metro
And a friend to the stars.
Now Neil Baldwin mingles with everyone from Gary Lineker to the Princess of Wales (Picture: Paul Greenwood/BPI/REX/Shutterstock)
If variety is the spice of life, then no one knows that better than Neil Baldwin. As a boy growing up in Staffordshire, he was diagnosed with learning difficulties and was poorly served by the education system.
Since then, he has ignored any labels and filled his life with the most remarkable adventures, from stints as a circus clown and Stoke City football club’s kit man to becoming friends with Ken Dodd to Gary Lineker and receiving royal honours.
And now, following a 2014 BAFTA-winning BBC biopic, Marvellous, where he was played by Toby Jones, comes a play of the same name about him.
After receiving rave reviews when it premiered in his home town of Newcastle-under-Lyme, the show is the opening production at Soho Place, the first new West End theatre in 50 years.
So which is his favourite, the screen or stage version of his life I wonder? ‘I like all of it because it’s made me more famous than I was before,’ Neil says, with brilliant directness. ‘And I’m glad I’m one of the people in this world who’s had a play about him and a film.’
Neil’s journey to national recognition started with a feature about him in The Guardian in 2010. That led to the BBC drama, and also an autobiography, co-written with his friend Malcolm Clarke, who is with him in our interview today; the play is based on their book, and takes many of Neil’s words directly from it.
Neil and Malcolm recall meeting for the first time back in the 1960s, on Malcolm’s first day as a student at Staffordshire’s Keele University. ‘[My family] didn’t have a car so I’d come on the train and Neil was there wearing a dog collar, so I thought not entirely unreasonably that he was probably the chaplain.’
A feature in the Guardian has eventually led to a major new play being produced about Neil’s life (Picture: Craig Sugden)
In fact, Neil had simply turned up to the campus off his own back to help greet students, an unofficial gig he has continued to do through the decades, becoming a much-loved figure at Keele and receiving an honorary degree in 2013. ‘A friend of mine who was a teaching student came to my school and invited me up to Keele, and I’ve never left it since,’ Neil explains. ‘It’s been a wonderful 62 years I’ve done.’
Channelling Neil’s joie de vivre, the play is a high-spirited affair, featuring slapstick comedy, songs, and multiple actors playing different versions of him. ‘At the current time, when there’s so much to worry about in the world, to have a positive story like this to tell is very important,’ thinks Malcolm. Neil has been keenly involved in the production, turning up to rehearsals nearly every day.
Then when the play was on in Newcastle-under-Lyme, he never missed a single performance, and, when we speak in the run-up to the London production, Neil says he will only be missing the first few days because he is making his annual trip to Switzerland to visit some circus friends.
But otherwise, he’ll be at the theatre, as before, saying hello and signing autographs. ‘It’s a wonder my arm hasn’t dropped off writing all the time,’ Neil jokes.
There is something inspiringly matter-of-fact about the way Neil describes his life’s wonderful twists and turns. Where many of us are filled with anxiety about our every small decision, he has just done what he wanted to do and got on with it, while always resolving to be happy because, as he says, ‘if you stay happy, you’ve got a good life.’
The show explores Neil’s healthy disregard for nerves (Picture: Craig Sugden)
On becoming a clown, for example, he explains simply, ‘When I was young, I went to circuses. And I said when I left school, the only thing I want to do is become a circus clown. And I made my dream come true and it was lovely.
’ Then football-wise, on top of his kit-man job, he applied to be both Stoke City manager and England manager. ‘He’s never been modest in his ambitions, shall we put it that way,’ says Malcolm warmly.
As for all the great and the good that Neil has befriended, he says he doesn’t get nervous about speaking to anyone. ‘If I was nervous, I wouldn’t have done all these things I’ve done,’ as he puts it.
Ex-Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Demond Tutu, Kevin Keegan, Tony Benn – the list of acquaintances goes on and on, while he’s also had memorable encounters with the Royal Family, such as Kate Middleton, now Princess of Wales, who he met at a Buckingham Palace event.
‘I said to her, “You’ve got lovely children,” and she said “thank you, sir” and I turned around and said, “I’m not a sir until you give me one,” and she couldn’t stop laughing.’
Now 76, you might think Neil had nothing left to achieve. But you’d be wrong – for now he’s got a TV drama and a play to his name. He says he ‘wouldn’t mind going to Hollywood,’ as the next step.
Who would he like to play him in the Hollywood movie of his life? ‘Michael Caine,’ he says assuredly, and you don’t doubt he could find a way of making it happen.
Marvellous is at Soho Place Theatre, London, until Nov 26, with tickets from the Soho Place website
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